6. Let SERM.fixed. He is not difmayed, when either IX. Loffes in his Estate, Sickness in his Body, or Blemishes in his Reputation befal him; but, with Job, he refolves that his Righteoufnefs he will hold faft, he will not let it Job xxvii. go, his Heart shall not reproach him as long as he lives. And as long as he builds his Truft and Confidence on this Rock of Ages, he doth not fear, though the Waves roar, and the Winds blow, or whatever outward Calamity may betide him. never fo great Afflictions and Troubles befal him, though his fworn Enemies fhould rejoice and triumph over him, and lay never fo many malicious Things to his Charge; let him be deprived even of the Neceffaries of Life, and his Body covered over with noifome Blotches and Sores, yet he knows that his Redeemer lives, that there is a God who governs the World, and, when he fees fit, will deliver him out of all his Troubles; fuch Confiderations, as thefe, adminifter Comfort to him, produce a Calm within his Breaft, and his Prov. xv. Confcience is to him a continual Feaft. Such 15. Happiness doth that Man enjoy, so valuable a Bleffing is it, to be able to look back upon the paft Actions of a Man's Life with Comfort and Satisfaction; to have the Teftimony of his Confcience, that he has has walked uprightly and pioufly towards SERM. God, in Temperance and Sobriety with IX. Relation to himself, and in perfect Love and Charity towards his Neighbour; and, to the utmost of his Power, has kept a Confcience void of Offence, both toward God and toward Men. Such a Man is able not only to bear Croffes and Afflictions with Courage and Chearfulness, but can look even Death in the Face; and, when his laft Hour approaches, can fay, with that good King, Hezekiah, Remember, now, O Haiah Lord, I befeech, how I have walked before xxxviii. thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart, and3· bave done that which is good in thy Sight! Such Confiderations, as thefe, will be a Stay and Comfort to him, when all the Honours and Riches, which this World can bestow upon him, can afford him no Satisfaction or Relief: For even at the great and terrible Day, when the Ungodly fhall not stand in Judgment, nor Sinners in the Congregation of the Righteous; when the Wicked fhall call to the Mountains to fall on them, and hide them from the Wrath of an angry God: Then the greatest Stay and Support to every good Man will be, the Teftimony of his Confcience, that, in Simpli- 2 Cor. city and godly Sincerity, he has paffed the Time of his fojourning in this World. Thefe are the Fruits and bleffed Effects of keeping i. 12. SERM. keeping a Confcience void of Offence; IX. which are fufficient not only to incite and encourage, but alfo to reward our Pursuits after it; and, therefore, let every one of us be prevailed on by these powerful Motives, to make it his chief Business in this World, to keep a Confcience void of Offence; which has the Promises of the Life that now is, as well as that which is to come. SERMON ! SERMON X. Of Working out our Salvation. Phil. ii. 12, 13. Work out your own Salvation with For it is God which worketh in you, I N the Beginning of this Chapter, the SERM. Apoftle exhorts the Philippians, to prac- X. tise those two cardinal Duties of the Christian Religion, Love and Humility; which, as they are effentially neceffary to the Being of a Chriftian, so are they Qualifications requifite for the obtaining of all other Virtues and Graces. And after he hath used many pathetical Exhortations to encourage the Philippians to be Ver. 2. like-minded, having the fame Love, being of Ver. 3. Ver. 5. SERM. of one Accord, of one Mind; and to let all X. Things be done in Lowliness of Mind, each efteeming others better than themselves; he adds the most strong and powerful Motive, the Example of our Bleffed Saviour, that perfect Pattern of holy Living and Dying: Let this Mind be in you, which was Ver. 6. alfo in Chrift Jefus, who, being in the Form of God, thought it no Robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no Reputation, and took upon him the Form of a Servant, and was made in the Likeness of Men: And being found in Fashion as a Man, be bumbled bimfelf, and became obedient unto Ver. 9. Death, even the Death of the Cross. Where Ver. 7. Ver. 8. fore God alfo bath highly exalted him, and given him a Name, which is above every Ver. 10. Name: That at the Name of Jefus every Knee Should bow, of Things in Heaven, and Things in Earth, and Things under the Earth, and that every Tongue should confefs, that Jefus Ver. 11. Chrift is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. And then it prefently follows, Ver. 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my Prefence only, but now much more in my Abfence, work out your own Salvation with Fear and Trembling; for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good Pleasure. Ver.13. WHEN |